Ravi Zacharias displayed a "pattern" of inappropriate behavior toward spa therapists working in spas he co-owned, an audio recording of his former business partner's interviews with investigators revealed.
Anurag Sharma, Zacharias' business partner, provided The Roys Report an audio recording of his talks with two groups of investigators who met with him last year.
Following posthumous allegations of sexual misconduct against Zacharias, which first came out in September 2020, Ravi Zacharias International Ministries (RZIM) hired law firm Miller & Martin to conduct an independent investigation regarding the matter. The Christian & Missionary Alliance, which ordained Zacharias, also hired a lawyer to look into the issue.
The recordings given by Sharma were from separate interviews conducted by these two groups in November and December.
Sharma, a former Hindu who became a Christian because of Zacharias, became the apologist's business partner in 2004 along with a woman named Vicki. The three of them set up a spa and hair salon named Touch of Eden.
In 2007, Vicki stated she wanted out of the business. Although Sharma didn't know at the time why she didn't want the business anymore, the three of them closed Touch of Eden.
Sharma and Zacharias opened a new one, an Ayurvedic spa called Jivan Wellness, in 2007, with Sharma funding the necessary remodeling of the place. A woman named Anna Adesanya managed it.
During the course of the new spa's operation, Sharma learned about Zacharias' misconduct when one of the therapists came to him complaining about Zacharias' behavior.
He later observed a "pattern" of how things would unfold at the spa whenever Zacharias went in for an appointment.
"It started actually, the lady therapist who had come and who talked about that he'd been misbehaving-exactly the pattern that was there . . ." Sharma told the investigator.
"And this was exactly the pattern, which was, I saw it plenty of time," he added.
When asked to specify what he observed, Sharma said Zacharias would usually begin by telling the therapists how tired he was from working so hard, a fact he used to justify his unusual requests to them.
Sharma also spoke of a time when Zacharias reportedly exposed himself to a therapist. The shocked therapist was devastated, but she decided not to say anything because everyone in the spa looked up to the apologist.
Sharma admitted it was difficult for him to talk about such details, as Zacharias was a close friend whom he respected.
In 2010, Adesanya, the manager of Jivan Wellness, brought to Sharma's attention a therapist who refused to schedule an appointment with Zacharias because of the apologist's behavior.
When Sharma spoke on the phone with Zacharias about the matter, Zacharias instructed him to delete all his records from the spa's database.
"Delete all my information, whatever it is," Zacharias reportedly told Sharma.
Because of these things, Sharma decided to quit the business. Jivan Wellness officially closed on September 2010. Sharma said he got little return for his investment of $300,000 to $400,000.
In 2020, Sharma got reconnected with Vicki, their business partner from the first spa, through James Beverly, a professor who had been doing research about the allegations against Zacharias.
Sharma told investigators that, according to Vicki, Zacharias misbehaved with "at least three or four girls" at Touch of Eden.
Zacharias passed away in May 2020 after a short battle with cancer. In September of the same year, three women who worked at his spa came forward about his sexual misconduct toward them, as reported by Christianity Today.
"I put all of that behind me," one of the women said. "I don't want money and don't want them to even know who I am. The only reason I'm talking is for other women out there who have been hurt by him."
In December 2020, RZIM released a statement confirming the allegations of sexual misconduct to be true based on the investigation.
"This misconduct is deeply troubling and wholly inconsistent with the man Ravi Zacharias presented both publicly and privately to so many over more than four decades of public ministry," RZIM said in an article published on its website.
"We are heartbroken at learning this but feel it necessary to be transparent and to inform our staff, donors, and supporters at this time, even while the investigation continues," RZIM said.
In 2017, Zacharias faced sexting allegations from a woman he met at a 2014 conference in Ontario. When the woman and her husband threatened to expose him, Zacharias filed a federal lawsuit against them. He eventually dropped the lawsuit after the couple agreed to a settlement.
